What goes around…
by Dat
What goes around…
Thung and Ha met each other by chance. He was a beggar, with no family of his own, and she was a young girl wanting to stay on in the town and finish college.
Ha's father was adamant that she discontinue her studies, return to the village and get married. He was not willing to support a venture that would only benefit her future husband's family. Without any money of her own, she was helpless and distraught.
When Thung heard Ha's story, he advised her to return home and get permission from her father to work in the town and earn some money before returning and getting married.
He would support her college studies when she returned, Thung said, adding that he had money to do so.
And so it happened. Ha resumed her studies and over the next four years or so, Thung supported his adopted daughter with years and years of savings as well as money he earned begging.
When Ha had to return home, and had no money to do so, Thung, already penniless, decided to add one more profession to begging.
One day, as he was begging for money in a market, Thung saw a woman walking down the street after coming out of a gold shop. He stole VND2 million (US$95) from the woman's handbag as she was choosing vegetables and ran away.
Unfortunately, he fell down as he was fleeing, was caught and arrested by the police.
Two weeks after his arrest, two people visited the police station to request his release.
One of them, to Thung's amazement, was the woman he had stolen the money from. The other was his adopted daughter, Ha. It turned out that the woman was Ha's real mother.
She told the police that Thung was her benefactor, not a thief for he had given her daughter a university education.
Later, the judge trying the case received a letter from Ha pleading with him not to punish her foster father. Ha said in her letter that the day Thung decided to be a thief was the day he promised to give her money to buy a bus ticket to go home.
For his part, 50-year-old Thung told the jury that he lived on the goodwill of others, so he was bound to help someone in need.
The story, which happened in a poor district along Chu River of Thanh Hoa Province about five or six years ago, was narrated recently by the judge who tried the case.
Miracle worker
Vo Hoang Yen is a herbalist who dismisses the belief, held by many people, that he has supernatural powers.
But the results he has reportedly achieved are miraculous in nature. Using massage and acupuncture therapy, he treats patients with paralysis, severe spinal problems and deafness.
It is said that people who are deaf and cannot speak have been cured after receiving his treatment.
Nguyen Thi Hang, 14, who lives in Ha Tinh Province's Thach Ha District, was born deaf. She is now able to hear and speak well after being treated by the 36-year-old herbalist.
Yen's fame has spread fast and thousands of hopeful people have been flocking to his house. His fame has also attracted the attention of doctors and scientists in Binh Phuoc and Ha Tinh Provinces who have come to evaluate his work
Recently in the presence of scientists, in just half of a day, Yen and his assistants saw more than 200 patients. Of these, 120 were deaf, and the others suffered from paralysis or spinal diseases.
Bui Thi Minh, an official in Ha Tinh, said many patients had to wait until the next day because the clinic was overcrowded. .
Whatever his medical prowess, Yen, a native of Ca Mau Province's Cai Nuoc District, does one thing that is truly amazing.
He offers free treatment to needy patients. — VNS